Easy Valentine’s Day Watercolor Painting Idea
Hearts are the perfect shape to practice your watercolor painting skills in. Use our simple painting tutorial to make a fun Valentine’s watercolor painting.
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Hearts are the perfect subject matter to use for creating this easy Valentine’s Day painting. Have fun making this painting in less than 15 minutes!
Recommended Supplies
- Card stock or watercolor paper will really make these watercolor techniques stand out.
- Premade Watercolor Blank Cards–these are a great option if you are making Valentine’s Day cards from your watercolor paintings.
- Liquid Watercolors or Watercolor Palette
- Paintbrush-this is our favorite economical brush to use with kids.
- Post-it or extra paper to make a small heart template
- Pencil
- Optional: Painter’s Tape & Piece of Cardboard
Regular heavier-weight white paper can work for watercolor paintings (especially with children) but you will have better success with true watercolor paper.
Choosing Watercolor Paint Color Combinations
Each heart will get two colors mixed together. We chose to use colors next to each other on the color wheel to create an ombré effect in our watercolor hearts.
If you look at our painting you can see that the top hearts are violet to violet blue to then blue.
The middle and bottom hearts are red-violet, red, red-orange, orange and yellow-orange.
How To Make An Easy Watercolor Heart Painting
Optional: Tape Your Watercolor Paper
For best results, tape your watercolor paper to a piece of cardboard or a flat surface. This will stop it from bubbling up while painting.
You can use regular painter’s tape or masking tape. Just be careful when you pull up the tape once your painting is dry.
Have extra watercolor paint and tape? See how you can make an amazing and easy winter watercolor landscape painting.
Step 1: Make A Heart Template
Cut out a small heart from a folded piece of paper.
Step 2: Trace Multiple Hearts On The Paper
Lightly use your pencil to trace around the hearts. Start in the middle of the paper and try to evenly space them out. You could measure if you want, but we simply eyeballed it.
You can trace them diagonally or straight across. Either pattern will work.
Step 3: Start To Paint Hearts
Each heart will get two colors or be diluted with water.
To start paint one side of the heart with red using a small brush. Add water to your brush and pull the paint to the other side.
Repeat this process, but use two different colors that are next to each other. This diagram can help you see what colors we mixed together. You can change this idea to fit your own color scheme.
Step 4: Let The Painting Completely Dry
Optional: Add Highlights and Shadows
Adding Highlights
You could use a white oil pastel or pen marker to add a little crescent shape on the lighter side of the paint.
Adding the Shadows
If you want your hearts to look more 3-dimensional you could add a cool colored wash to the same side of each heart.
Just be careful if adding shadows. We think we just liked the simple Valentine’s watercolor painting before adding shadows. With watercolor paint, sometimes less is more!
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Have fun gifting that special someone this awesome watercolor card. You could even make this easy flower craft to go along with it.
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- Textured Tissue Paper Heart Craft
Do you like this art project? Be sure to give us 5 stars below 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩 and have fun being creative with your family.
Easy Watercolor Valentine’s Painting
Equipment
- Small Paintbrush
- Pencil
Supplies
- Card Stock or Watercolor Paper
- Liquid Watercolors or Watercolor Palette
- Post-it or extra paper to make a small heart template
Instructions
- Cut out a small heart from a folded piece of paper.
- Lightly use your pencil to trace around the hearts. Start in the middle of the paper and try to evenly space them out.
- To start paint one side of the heart with red using a small brush. Add water to your brush and pull the paint to the other side.
- Repeat this process, but use two different colors that are next to each other.
- Let paintings dry completely.
Optional Steps
- Use a white oil pastel or pen marker to add a little crescent shape on one side of the top of the heart.
- Add a cool colored wash to the same side of each heart.
Notes
- You can change the watercolor paint colors to fit your own color scheme.
- Less is more with watercolor sometimes. Don’t overwork the hearts.
- You can trace them diagonally or straight across. Either pattern will work.
- If making Valentine’s cards from your paintings, consider buying premade watercolor cards.
interesting and affordable options. It would also be helpful to know price of whole craft experience
Hi Eli. Thanks for the feedback. I guess it depends on what supplies you already have and what you might have to purchase or the quality of paper you want to use on your watercolor heart painting.
thanks so much for this wonderful tutorial!
Hi Erin,
Thank you for the simple tutorial. I’m not ready for too much shading so I’m glad it isn’t necessary. Last time I painted with watercolors I was in high school…(40 years ago).
I also wanted to say hi because my maiden name is Nutter, which isn’t very common.
Take care!
Amy
Hi Amy. It is nice to meet you. Yes, just have fun painting. The best part about anything we post is that you can always change it to fit your style and skills.